As early as 6.30am on the ‘D’ day about five armed soldiers came to the guardroom, in the Army Barracks in Jos. They were at the guardroom where the convicted coup planners were detained to take them to the execution (firing squad) ground. The convicts included the deputy to the head of state, the late General Sanni Abacha, the Chief of General Staff, Lt. General Oladipupo Diya. Others were Gen. Tajudeen Olanrewaju, Gen. Abdulkareem Adisa, and Odekunle.
They were accused, arrested, tried at a tribunal and convicted for planning a coup, a very serious offence in the military law book. As these senior military officers filed out in a row, they were marched to board a Black Maria parked at a distance that was to take them to the firing-squad site at a far away other side of Jos, those who had shared the guardroom with the coup convicts believed it was the last time they would see them. They were, however, wrong. It was a mystery that the convicts didn’t die that day.
As they were being led to the Black Maria, those who waved them bye-bye thought they have paid them the last respect.
In the military, reward of mutiny is death by firing squad. Military authorities believe that firing squad doesn’t only instill fear of consequence would be mutineers, but it is also an effective deterrence against coup planners. That is why once a firing squad is dated, it does not waver. It remains sancrosant and those condemned to face the squad are as dead as dodo on the day and time specified in the order.
That perhaps was why the case of the late Lt – General Oladipupo Diya, who escaped firing squad twice, would for a long time remains a mystery in the annal of military history. On April 28, 1998, a tribunal set up by the late Gen. Sanni Abacha to try military officers who were accused of planning a coup against him. It was headed by Gen. Victor Malu. Those on trail included the number two man in the Abacha military government, Lt. Gen. Diya. Also on the list were Gen. Tajudeen Olanrewaju, Gen. Abdulkareem Adisa, Odekunle among others.
After examination and perusal of both oral and documentary evidences tendered by the prosecuting witnesses and the defence put up by the accused, Gen. Malu slammed a verdict of guilty on those who stood trial and a day was announced and fixed for their execution.
They were taken to the Jos Barracks and detained, waiting for the day the guards would come and take them to the firing squad ground.
As things were, the most senior convict, Diya, was once the General Officer Commanding 3rd Division that has its headquarters in Jos, the tin city. Day of execution was fixed and on the ‘D’ day, the execution stage was set on execution ground. Soldiers who were picked to do the hatchet job were taken to the site. They were armed with FN rifles. They held a mock parade to keep them ready to the day’s job of blood, yet their preys were not brought.
The small crowd had gathered to watch the grosteque drama, but those who were to take the bullets had not come.
The firing squad site and the barracks where the coup convicts were detained were a distance that was not more than a 30 minutes drive.
It was, therefore, a surprise that the commander of the firing squad unit was surprised that the Black Maria that was expected to bring the convicts to the firing squad site was still being expected more the eight hours after it was expected to have left the barracks for the firing squad site. At a point, the waiting squad, its commander were alarmed. They could not, however contact the barracks where the convicts were detained. They, however continued to wait.
The experience of the convicts, guards who were providing security for them and the driver was a different kettle of fish. The Black Maria was racing to the firing squad site when the vehicle gave a strange and unpleasant sound, it’x exhaust pipe released a thick dark smog and suddenly came to a halt. The driver came down from the driver’s seat. He went straight to the bonnet and opened it. He went back to his seat, opened a panel and brought out a kit of spanners and other tools. He opened the bonnet again and started fiddling with the engine.
At that point, three soldiers on guard of the convicts also jumped down from the Black Maria. They joined the driver to see what he was doing. The convicts were, however, sweeting it out in the Black Maria. One, two, three hours, the driver was fiddling with the vehicle. It appeared he had not known what was wrong with the vehicle not to talk of knowing what to do with the engine that had gone on recess.
Those who were expecting the Black Maria at the firing squad site did not know what has happened to the vehicle or its passengers. Were they passengers? From morning about 10.30 when the Black Maria crawled to a halt and refused to kick-start again, confusion described.
The driver could not invite public mechanics or vehicle repair men to lend him a hand of assistance because of the sensitive nature of the contingent in the Black Maria. The driver and the accompanied armed guards found a way to feed when hunger came, but not the convicts in the Black Maria. Hunger and thirst were their play mates that day.
To the surprise of the driver, who had given up all hope and believed that the Black Maria would be parked at the point where it broke down, the vehicle suddenly roared back to life at 5.30 pm. Hurrah! The driver soliloquised. He drove the convicts back to the barracks. At that time, the squad that was to execute the coup convicts had been withdrawn too. It was after 6 O’clock in the evening.
On June 8, 1998, an incognito voice tapped the glass panes of the window of Diya’s death cell and whisppered in a bearly audible voice: “Abacha is dead”. After the first failure of the scheduled execution of Diya and other coup convicts, General Abacha had resolved to execute those he described enemies of state in Kano and equally gave order to the same effect fixed for June 9, 1998.
The convict were to be flown to Kano for execution by firing squad on June 9, 1998. As Almighty God was not ready to call Diya and his co-convicts back home, instead, it was Abacha himself who died a day before the scheduled day for the convicts’ execution.
– Tajudeen Adigun
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